The city of Plano is hosting its annual citizenship workshop on Saturday — amid growing tensions over immigration in the United States.
The workshop, which is scheduled for 2 p.m. at the Plano ISD Sockwell Center on Chapel Hill Boulevard, isn’t new. Shaheen Salam, the co-chair of the city’s Multi Cultural Outreach Roundtable, said the city has hosted it for almost two decades on the second Saturday in February.
Plano has a large immigrant population. Salam said the workshop is the city’s way of giving back to its immigrant community. Everything is free. Several Plano restaurants are providing food. Plano ISD is allowing the city to use the facility through their intergovernmental partnership. There will also be pro bono attorneys who speak Spanish, Chinese and Arabic and information on citizenship and English classes.
Salam said she hopes the workshop will inspire people.
“If you become a citizen, so many doors will open for you, and you can do so much for the city and for yourself,” she said.
Monica Saenz-Rodriguez, a North Texas immigration attorney, said many immigrants are worried about their status because of President Donald Trump’s recent executive orders on immigration.
“Even U.S. citizens are concerned about their status,” Saenz-Rodriguez said. “Naturalized citizens are concerned about their status. We’re just living in a time of fear because of the rhetoric against immigrants.”
The Trump administration has authorized immigration and customs enforcement to conduct arrests in schools, churches and healthcare facilities. There’s also an executive order that could end birthright citizenship for children of immigrants without legal permanent residence. A federal judge in Seattle has temporarily blocked the executive order.
Karen Kanhai-Snorton, the volunteer coordinator for South Asian American Voter Education Empowerment (SAAVE TX), said immigrants and their families are afraid that Immigration and Customs Enforcement could detain them.
“I see people with their passport in their pockets just recently,” Kanhai-Snorton said.
Chanda Parbhoo, the executive director and founder of SAAVETX and the SAAVETX education fund, said she never expected to face this when she became a citizen as a teenager.
“In 1984, when I became a naturalized citizen, I was told it is illegal for anybody to question my citizenship,” Parbhoo said. “And I'm thinking to myself, where have we come since then?”
Got a tip? Email Caroline Love at clove@kera.org.
Caroline Love is a Report For America corps member for KERA News.
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